Review: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen (A Year-Round Christmas Mystery #1) by Vicki Delany

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 2115 KB
• Print Length: 295 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (Nov. 3 2015)
• Sold by: Penguin Group USA
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00SI0B5R6

Book Description

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!

In Rudolph, New York, it’s Christmastime all year long. But this December, while the snow-lined streets seem merry and bright, a murder is about to ruin everyone’s holiday cheer…

As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoe-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town.

Merry isn’t ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirit. But when she stumbles upon the reporter’s body on a late night dog walk—and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky—Merry will have to put down the jingle bells and figure out who’s really been grinching about town, before Vicky ends up on Santa’s naughty list…

About the Author

“It’s a crime not to read Delany,” so says the London Free Press.

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most varied and prolific crime writers. Her popular Constable Molly Smith series (including In the Shadow of the Glacier and Among the Departed) have been optioned for TV by Brightlight Pictures.

She writes standalone novels of modern gothic suspense such as Burden of Memory and More than Sorrow, as well as a light-hearted historical series, (Gold Digger, Gold Mountain), set in the raucous heyday of the Klondike Gold Rush. She is also the author of a novel for reluctant readers, titled A Winter Kill.

Having taken early retirement from her job as a systems analyst in the high-pressure financial world, Vicki is settling down to the rural life in bucolic, Prince Edward County, Ontario where she rarely wears a watch.

Visit Vicki at www.vickidelany.com , www.facebook.com/vicki.delany, and twitter: @vickidelany

She blogs about the writing life at One Woman Crime Wave (http://klondikeandtrafalgar.blogspot.com)

Vicki is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, and Capital Crime Writers, and is on the board of Wolfe Island’s Scene of the Crime Mystery Festival.

Visit Vicki at www.vickidelany.com

My Review

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen is the first book in the A Year-Round Christmas Mystery series by author Vicki Delany. I discovered Delany because of her Constable Molly Brown series which is an excellent series set in the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

A Year Round Christmas Mystery series is set in the fictional town Rudolph which is in upstate New York on Lake Ontario. The town is permanently set up as a Christmas town that celebrates Christmas all year long. The main character Merry owns a gift shop called Mrs. Claus's Treasures which caries gifts crafted by local artisans. I pictured Leavenworth, Washington which is a Bavarian themed town that has a lot of Christmas activities while I was reading.

Delany is a great writer and it is always a pleasure to read a cozy mystery that is well written and has a well crafted tale. There is a murder of course right near the beginning. It is a good mystery with lots of red herrings...I was surprised by the murderer reveal.

There are a lot of interesting characters to flesh out the story. Merry is single and has a couple of suitors...I am favouring the local toy maker. Merry's parents also figured prominently in the story....her father is the former Mayor and current Santa Claus while her mother, a former opera singer, now runs a music school and is singing carols with her students all over town.

This was perfect to read right before Christmas but of course can be read any time. Highly recommend Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by author Vicki Delany.